Sophie Westlake tells the EWEA blog about a new website that aims to collect as many facts as possible on the benefits of Europe’s climate and energy policies…

Sceptics argue that climate change and sustainable energy policies will damage Europe’s economy, but do you believe delayed action in deploying renewable energy technologies could actually be cheaper in the long-run? Do you really think that climate action is a genuine threat to European jobs?

Well the short answer for me is “not really”… But then you probably want a little more detail than that…

At the end of last week EU environment ministers met to discuss how to fix the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) by raising the price of carbon. The EWEA blog spoke to Rémi Gruet, EWEA’s senior regulatory affairs advisor on climate change, to discover just what the ETS does and why the EU needs a higher carbon price.

What is the emissions trading system?

The ETS is a kind of market that puts a price on carbon emissions. Big polluters – mainly the power sector – are legally required to limit their carbon emissions. If they emit less than their limit they can sell carbon ‘permits’ on the market, and if they emit more they can buy carbon ‘permits’.

Many of us take electricity for granted. It’s there in the morning when we turn on the kettle and it’s there at night when we switch the lights on. But are people aware of the need to upgrade and extend Europe’s electricity grids? Does anyone know that there is no EU-wide market for electricity and of the benefits that such a market could bring?

The results of a new study, which come as EU institutions debate the ‘infrastructure package’ – the European Commission’s draft proposals for updating and interconnecting EU electricity grids – show  just what people in Brussels think of electricity grids and the market. Here’s what they had to say:

Tempers seem to have frayed at yesterday’s EU Energy Council over the European Commission’s proposals for an EU-wide energy infrastructure package, the European Voice has reported.  Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for energy, was “visibly frustrated” at the meeting of ministers after many of them said they could not accept transferring authority for energy infrastructure from regions to EU level, the website said.

The news comes as Energy Ministers across Europe were presented with a statement – supported by EWEA, Eurelectric, Europacable and 35 other organisations – calling for an internal EU market for energy and grid extensions and upgrades in order to boost security of supply, achieve our climate goals and bring more renewables online.

European governments, the European Commission and the European Parliament have begun discussions on how the European energy system should look like in 2050. It is clear that political actions are needed this decade to prepare for such a dramatic overhaul of our energy supply structure.

The EU and the G8 have agreed to cut emissions by 80% in 2050, with the EU saying it will deepen cuts to 95% if other countries sign up to similar action. These commitments mean that the power sector will need to be 100% carbon free by 2050, since transport and agriculture will need the residual 20% emissions.

Power plants have a long lifetime and, if we are to keep to the 2050 limit, this means that no carbon emitting power plant can be constructed in the European Union after 2020.

The first question to any responsible politician – European or from any other industrialised country – talking about 80% greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2050 must be: What measures do you propose to ensure that no carbon emitting power plant is constructed after 2020?

Many stakeholders will – and are – pushing for a combination of renewable energy, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage (CCS) to achieve zero-carbon power by 2050. They will argue that we need all technologies to decarbonise our power sector. It is not correct that we need them all to achieve a carbon free power sector in 2050. Renewable energy can do it alone with a massive contribution from onshore and offshore wind energy.

“Renewable energy can do it alone with a massive contribution from wind energy.”

In 2000, 21% of new power capacity installed in the EU was from renewable energy technologies (19% was wind energy). In 2009, the share had increased to 62% (39% wind). In the past ten years, the EU increased renewable energy’s share of new power capacity by 40%-points to 61%. There are no fundamental technical barriers to fill the remaining 39% gap and source all our new power capacity from renewables by 2020.

The wind energy sector should make a loud and clear statement in the current energy debate about 2050 that we do not need 100% zero-carbon (meaning a combination of renewables, nuclear energy and coal CCS) by 2050. We need 100% renewable energy by 2020.